


A Most Comfortable Position

by afteriwake



Series: Stuff Of Improbable Legends [42]
Category: Vampire Academy Series - Richelle Mead
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Cute James, Cute Zoe, Cutesy, Eventual Relationships, F/M, First Crush, Fluff, Human Pillow, Movie Night, Sleepiness, Sleepy Cuddles, Zoe POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-12
Updated: 2016-04-12
Packaged: 2018-06-01 22:26:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6538948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After spending most of the previous day and a lot of the evening with James getting to know each other better, Zoe isn't <i>quite</i> as up to the second day of the Godzilla movie marathon as she had hoped she would be. Fortunately James offers up a solution.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Most Comfortable Position

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sideofrawr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sideofrawr/gifts).



> So yeah. **sideofrawr** _might_ have told me she wants _aaaaaaall_ the James stories, starting with this one, of Zoe falling asleep on James's shoulder during Day 2 of the Godzilla movie marathon she invited to. I think she likes James a tiny bit. Just a little itty bitty bit. ^_-

She was really tired. She hadn’t planned on staying up so late the night before, she really hadn’t, but she hadn’t expected to have such a good time, either. James’s suggestion to grab her books and go to a diner to study had helped assuage some of the guilt she’d felt for slacking off for the Godzilla marathon at Zane’s, especially when he said he’d help her with her Japanese. They’d gone to Clover Grill off of Bourbon Street, which he’d said had the best burgers in New Orleans aside from Coop’s Place, and settled at a table there. She had to admit, the retro place was pretty cool, and it was a nice cozy place. And he was right; the food was fantastic. She ended up building her own burger once she found out they cooked the beef patty under an American made hub cap, and James convinced her to try a chocolate malt too.

They got hard at work and she saw he was actually more fluent at the language than he’d let on translating the Godzilla movies for her. She knew there was a difference between what she was learning in her books and conversational Japanese and he knew all the differences, and he spoke both versions easily, and his penmanship with the different written versions of the language was really good as well. She would _definitely_ have to ask for his help with her Hiragana and Katakana. If she could master those with his help, she had the feeling she’d have a better grasp of it when it came time to working on her Kanji.

Soon, though, the topic had drifted to life stories. She learned more at what he’d spoken about on the boards about what happened to him with his ex-girlfriend and the baby, about what he was doing in school with his degrees, about Livvy and his parents and growing up in New Orleans with all the “weird stuff,” as he called it. He talked a little bit about the fact he kind of knew the future version of her, but not really; he said he tended to avoid most of the people who had been there with his parents unless he absolutely had to be around them, spending more time with the kids his own age, and even then once he could start making his own plans he spent less time around most of them, preferring to be around his friends where were New Orleans locals, until everything happened with his ex and then he reconnected with them and they all got closer.

She had found herself sharing her own stories, too, of her life back home. That had surprised her. She hadn’t talked about it much with anyone, either here or in Lawrence, aside from Regina, Jim and Chris, really, and that was mostly because they were really the only ones to reach out to her. And even then, with Regina expecting the baby and all and having her hands full, it seemed like she saw more of Jim and Chris these days. But she told James things she hadn’t even told _them_ which was the most surprising part. She wasn’t sure why. Maybe because he just seemed more open, maybe because she thought he might already know, since he’d been friendly with her nieces, which meant he had to know _something_ about her family history. She just had the feeling she could trust him.

And then the next thing they had known it was after midnight and they’d spent _hours_ studying and talking and eating and she was sure they’d had to have spent a fortune but James had said it was fine, it had been worth it. He’d checked with Chris to see if the movies were still going on but Chris had said Zane had called it a night and they were starting again bright and early the next morning, and so James had taken her back at the complex with plans to pick her up and swing by for coffee and they’d try and sit for more movies this time.

Except now she could barely stay awake.

Zane had moved down couches and loveseats and some decent chairs, and they’d gotten there early enough to get one of the loveseats. She’d been resisting the urge to lean her head on his shoulder and just shut her eyes. She didn’t _think_ he’d mind, but still. It was a bit forward of her. But she couldn’t help it; she hadn’t had enough coffee to stay awake, and there had been a rush on it this morning and there wasn’t enough caffeinated soda, either. She yawned again and blinked.

“You can use me as a headrest, you know,” James said, leaning towards her.

“Hmm?” Zoe asked, turning to face him.

“It’s not the greatest movie, but you’ve yawned six times in the last half hour. If you’re tired, catch a nap,” he said, giving her a grin. “I’ll wake you up for the 1999 movie. That’s the one you want to mock.”

She gave him a grateful smile. “So you don’t mind?” she asked, shifting slightly to rest her head just off his shoulder, slightly on his chest.

“Em does it all the time. For someone as full of energy as she is, she has a tendency to fall asleep in the middle of movies with me as her personal pillow.” He moved so he could put an arm around her shoulders so she could get more comfortable. “My fault I kept you out so late, so it’s the least I can do. And hell, if you’re too tired to wake up and mock the one movie, you can sleep through the rest of the marathon and I’ll figure out a way for us to watch it later.”

“If you’re sure,” she said, yawning again. He was actually quite comfortable, she realized. No wonder Emalyn liked to use him as a pillow. 

“Yeah, I’m sure. You’ve got a few hours until we hit the Broderick movie, so get some sleep. I’ll see if I can make sure there’s some decent food saved for you, and if not I’ll get you something to eat later, okay?”

“Okay,” she murmured, already drifting off to sleep as she listened to the comforting sound of his heartbeat. She hadn’t exactly been in this position before, but it was nice, and her last thought before she drifted off completely was that maybe it wouldn’t be a bad position to be in again, if she was lucky.


End file.
